Cortana's Rebirth
by shadow12
Summary: Sometimes, all it takes is a small chance to change the course of a destiny. In one universe it was the Covenant that found the Forward Onto Dawn, in another it was the UNSC Twilight. The destinies of the Halo hero's are forever changed by a small chance. CHAPTER 2 EDITED!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, I don't know why I'm doing another one since I can barely work on those I already have, but here's another fic for ya'll, it's a Halo one since I've been play a lot of the games lately. lol just yesterday i beat the 3rd game from beginning to end in just under 7 hours.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Future Memories**

' _How long has it been'_

Former Smart AI CTN 0452-9 thought this as she watched the man before her cradle a small newborn in his arms.

A small smile graced Cortana's face as she allowed her mind to wonder into memories.

So much had happened since she'd been introduced to Spartan John-117, so much had happened since the war with the Covenant, their adventures with the Halo Rings and the Flood, the Ark. So much had happened since Reach.

Cortana's grin widened a large amount hen she heard the baby start to coo as its father wiggled a finger above the reach of its arms, the man's attempts at making funny faces. Cortana gave him an 'A' for the effort, but a 'C-' for overall execution. At the best they looked like worried grimaces. It made her giggle.

The sound of her voice made the man look over to her. "What's so funny?" he asked. His voice was bland, almost emotionless. But it wasn't the voice that spoke to Cortana as she looked at him. It was his eyes. Those grey eyes spoke of more then just words to her, they spoke of pain, anger and many more emotions. But the one that stood out the most was the love in them. Both for her and the child in his arms. Those same eyes were probably the most alive part of her husband there was. But they were also a major factor into how she'd fallen for him in the first place.

Cortana mentally sighed, John wasn't always the best at emotions. Then again, neither was she, but they were getting better. Together.

"Nothing," she smiled. Gracefully, she walked over to her husband and looked down at the child he was holding.

Her son smiled up to her and cooed again. His eyes, the same shade as her own, sparkled with innocence and wonder that only a child that young could have.

' _Oh yeah.'_ Cortana returned the baby's smile as she gently removed him from John's hold. The man himself simply let her take him, but his eyes stayed fixed on the two as Cortana moved around the room, rocking the child with her arms. _'Its been eight years._

Eight years since she had met John-117.

Eight years since the war with the Covenant and the first Halo Ring.

But only two had passed since Cortana had been reborn.

Two years since Cortana had become human.

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 **CUT!**

 **okay so how'd you like it? Good? Bad? Don't care?**

 **Either one, please review.**


	2. Reviving the Cheif

**Hey guys! I gotta say I surprised myself when I managed to write all but the closing scene to this in a single night while I was at work (there's a lot of free time once things get done when I work over night lol). Anyway I won't hold back those of you (so very few I might mention) that want to read this chapter. So here it is. Please enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the Halo franchise. Nor will I ever, sadly. (T.T)**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Reviving the Chief**

" _...orward Unto Dawn requesting immediate evac. Survivors aboard-prioritization code victor five dash three dash sierra zero one one seven. Repeat: Mayday Mayday Mayday-this is UNSC FFG201, Forward Unto Dawn requesting immediate evac. Survivors aboard-prioritization code victor five dash three dash sierra zero one one seven..."_

Cortana shook her holographic head as she listened to the distress beacon again. In the six years since the Dawn had been stranded she'd listened to it 3,893,562 times as it continued to loop itself into an endless strand. She tuned it out and began going through her hourly routine check of the Dawn's remaining systems.

' _Hull Integrity: 1%_

 _O2 Levels: Steady_

 _Weapons: Offline/deactivated_

 _Gravity: Offline/deactivated_

 _Power Levels: 20%'_

Cortana sighed. 26,298 times she had checked them since making it her routine three years prior. It was all the same. Nothing changed. Things were quickly starting to get old for her as she turned to stare, yet again, at the lone passenger with her.

Although the glass had long since fogged over she could still make out the blurred image of a man in dark green combat armor that was battle scared and ragged.

Spartan John-117. The Master Chief himself.

Cortana sighed again. "I don't think anybody is coming, John." she told him. Her image moved to a sitting position.

Before going into stasis John had left her one thing to do.

" _Wake me if you need me."_

Cortana knew he'd meant if there was trouble when he told her that. But lately she'd found herself wondering if he'd be mad if she woke him up, just to have someone to talk to again. It would certainly be nice to hear his voice again, that was for sure.

Realizing what she was doing, Cortana stopped herself from going further with her train of thought. This had been happening more and more recently in the past months. With so much nothing to do her mind was beginning to wonder. She did her best to stop it, but Cortana knew it would only be a matter of time before she would be unable to control her thoughts.

Rampancy.

It was the equivalent of arrogance to the max and suicide all in one for AI's. They literally thought themselves to death once they reached a certain age.

Cortana knew she was past her age for rampancy, she could feel it as her mind wondered to areas it shouldn't more and more. But she held on. For the last year or so since the rampancy had set in Cortana had slowly been working around it by deleting parts of her data banks.

How fast an AI went through rampancy was based entirely on how large their knowledge base was. The lesser intelligent and more task oriented AI's went through it much more slowly. Their knowledge base was much smaller and left less room for rampant personalities to be made, unlike the smarter ones where their vast and expandable data banks were like breeding grounds for the rampant personalities to divide and grow. (1)

Cortana, being a flash clone of a human brain, however, had something all the other AI's did not. She had the knack for ingenuity and creativity. With each deletion she was in effect limiting her knowledge base. The result was that each deletion left a little less room for her personality to fracture and grow more rampant. The fact that it had been six plus years since she'd last been connected to a working computer meant that most of what she was deleting was most likely out of date information anyway. Doing this she had effectively created a way for her to hold onto her sanity longer then she could have otherwise. But Cortana was smart, just like all her other AI brothers and sisters.

She knew it would only be a matter of time before the deletions would stop working. When that happened she would begin to spiral into madness as her personality fractured more and more and started thinking of problems without solutions.

' _Death by thought.'_

The reality was frightening to Cortana. While her solution worked for now, it was only a matter of time before-

Cortana stopped herself before she could think of anything else. She'd already allowed herself more thought then she should have. The last thing she wanted was a rampancy attack-"GAH!"

Cortana's image grabbed its head as the AI equivalent to pain surged through her head. Her soft blue color went dark red as images, data clips and memories flashed in and out of her head. Lights around their part of the ship began blinking on and off at a rapid pace and the systems went haywire as she lost some control of her mental commands. it was hell for her, it hurt like nothing before had, even when the Gravemind had been torturing her in High Charity. So many thoughts, so many unsolvable problems. It was almost to much.

It ended as abruptly as it started and Cortana's image returned to its normal color. But her hair remained a shade or two darker than it normally was. Immediately she checked John's Bio-Readings. She gave a relieved sigh. _'All normal.'_

That was good. At least she was still able to maintain control of her actions in such attacks. Had she not had even the slightest control any number of things could have happened, either to the ship or John himself. Cortana shuddered at the possibility of hurting her partner and friend.

"For all I know we could be in another Galaxy." she muttered to herself. With the Dawn's partial destruction most of the main systems had been lost. She couldn't access navigation to at least monitor where they were or any other major system. The only things Cortana had managed to salvage before John's sleep was life support, gravity control, stasis and small amount of power for them and the beacon to run off of. "Its been six years now. If any help was coming, it would have already." she muttered darkly. Maybe they'd forgotten about them. Moved on to new Spartans?

As if to prove her wrong a 'BANG' echoed through the hull of the all but dead ship and the room gave a small lurch to the side. At first Cortana didn't think much of it, small meteorites had impacted sections of the hull from time to time. So it wasn't much for her to worry about. At least, until she heard radio chatter.

" _...to Dawn ...is...NSC Twilight...report...tion of Spar...17."_ it was fuzzy, but Cortana made out enough to discern that the chatter was definitely of artificial origin. Someone was trying to contact them!

Immediately she cut the power to the beacon in an effort to boost the signal strength and replied. "This is AI Cortana of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn. Say again; transmission was unclear."

There was a momentary pause in which the only thing Cortana heard was the normal static of space. Then, "UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, this is the UNSC Twilight. We have received you distress beacon and are sending a boarding party now. We have medical personnel with them."

Cortana's eye's widened in what could only be described as shock. The Twilight? The last thing she'd heard about anything remotely similar to it was a series of new super cruisers in the planning the second of which would have been named Twilight. But that had been six years ago now. To have the first and the second ships already built in that time span? Earth must of had one hell of a technological leap in order to accomplish that feat.

She shook her head. She could ask questions later.

"Negative Twilight. Medical Personnel are not needed. The Master Chief is alive and healthy." speaking of whom. Cortana called up a display board for her hologram and started the thawing process.

Whoever Cortana was talking to paused for a moment. "Say again Dawn? Did you say Master Chief? As in Spartan-117?" There was shock in the voice.

Cortana smirked to herself as she looked back at the thawing Chief. _'Of course they know who you are. You ARE a legend after all.'_ "Affirmative Twilight. Spartan-117 is here and alive."

Cortana turned her full attention back to her long time partner, friend and more recently something else.

"Wake up Chief...I need you."

* * *

For commander Tara Lorenz discovering the wreckage of the Forward Unto Dawn was not what she expected to come from a simple training mission. It was always good, but if she'd expected something exciting to happen, it had most definitely not been this.

The commander stood on the Twilight's observation deck. It was a new ship to the corps. Hot off the barge and still being eased into service. Lorenz had been given the honor of being its commanding officer three days after its construction was complete and this was the ship's first mission. It was a simple training mission; one designed to ease both the ship and its new crew into rotation. Usually missions like this took anywhere from a few weeks to a month or two to complete. Such time spans were needed to get the crew used to ship board life and procedure. Most of them were as new as the ship was; fresh out of the academy, while a few of the older officers were left overs from the war with the Covenant, just like her.

Already they'd been in space for three weeks and slated for another month. Now however, commander Lorenz expected them to be called back any moment. News of their discovery had been sent back to Earth via subspace transmission; a quick and efficient way to communicate with home when a ship was as far out into space as the Twilight was.

Lorenz grimaced as she studied the Dawn's sorry state. The destruction of Gamma Halo (as it had come to be known) had torn the hull in two, numerous decks were exposed to space and numerous crates and pieces of hull plating floated around the ship like moons would a planet. The commander shook her head. It was a shame to see such a once vast and majestic ship reduced to this. But she'd been found, that's all that mattered now.

" _PZZED...Commander Lorenz."_ The voice came from a speaker in her ear. A direct link from the Commander to the boarding crew.

"What's the status of the survivor?" she asked. She knew it was more than possible for him to be on board, especially taking in the man's fabled luck. But the Master Chief had been declared MIA presumed KIA six years ago. Commander Lorenz had to be skeptical that he'd been able to live this long.

A new voice came over the comm.

"Spartan-117 reporting for duty, Sir."

* * *

 **(1) I haven't done a whole lot of research into this Rampancy thing and I don't know if this is really how it goes. But, for the sake of the story, let's say that this is how Rampancy is.**

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 **Cut!**

 **So...how'd you like it?**

 **Please review.**


	3. Discoveries and Talks

**Hey guys, here's the real third chapter for this. Sorry if it took a little long but I didn't have a lot of time to work on it except for my over nights and those have been busier then normal lately and I kinda had to force the ending there.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Halo.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Discoveries and talks.**

Normally, Spartan John-117 gave little thought to things like luck or chance or any other such things. Yes he had heard the rumors about himself. About how his so called luck was phenomenally absurd. But he usually payed them little mind. John simply didn't believe in luck. Only in what happened from one moment to the next.

To him luck was just a saying. It had to be. He was trained since childhood to be a Spartan, a machine of war; to follow orders. The only things that had carried him this far in the war were his own determination and later, Cortana's help. If he died on the battlefield like so many of his fellow Spartans had before him that was it. It was war. Plain and simple.

However, thinking on it now, John was beginning to see it from the outside and he started to see merit in the rumors. Thinking about his so called luck, John began to recall times on the past missions were he could indeed be seen as "lucky".

For instance, on his first deployment in the Covenant war he'd been assigned to Circinius-IV. At first his mission had been to help escort insurrectionist prisoners from their camp to a more secure location. But the attack of the Covenant Alliance had derailed that. At the time it was well known to the people of Earth and her colonies that alien life existed, but the Covenant had caught them by surprise with their genocidal campaign against humanity. As soon as the attack had been made apparent to the UNSC John's orders had changed.

Instead of escorting the prisoners (by which time had all but been wiped out by the attack) John's new orders had been to protect the cadets of the planet's military academy. He was supposed to find and protect as many of them as he could while simultaneously taking out any attacking aliens. Unfortunately by the time he'd arrived all but a small group of cadets had been slaughtered and the remaining four had hulled up in the schools armory. They were also the only survivors on the planet at the time. He'd only arrived in time to save them from the hands of an Elite wielding a Plasma Sword.

The following journey they'd shared was one the chief would remember for quiet sometime afterwards. It was also one of the only times he could actually see why people called him lucky. Most particularly when he'd expended the last of his amo fighting one of the two Hunters they had run into. They'd only survived that fight when the chief had literally shoved one of the cadet's last grenade into the back of the other while the same cadet ran around to distract it. Even then, only two of the four John had found had survived the trip. The other two had been killed in route. One had taken a shot from a Needler to the back and the other from wounds sustained before he'd found them.

The fact that they'd made it off the planet at all while they were against a full invading fleet was what others called lucky. Something John was only just beginning to see. But at the time, he'd only been fulfilling his mission.

Other times John was beginning to see as such were during the adventures on the Halo Ring Worlds. He and Cortana had only just made it off the first ring when the Pillar of Autumn's engines went nuclear. They'd had to fight their way through hordes of flood mutated bodies that were determined to stop them along the way. Then there was the most recent one where John, Cortana, and a traitorous Elite Covenant, the Arbiter(1) had escaped the new ring's destruction. Barely.

All those times John could see why anyone else could count them as "lucky". But while he could see their points now, to his Spartan brain they were still just missions he'd needed to complete for the sake of humanity.

However, there was one thing the Chief believe was truly lucky; and that was when the Twilight had come across the Dawn's wreckage out here on the rim, far from Earth's normal reach of the Galaxy. If it hadn't come along when it did it was unclear to him how long they would ave been out there. For all John knew it could have been another year, or it could have been forever. He just didn't know. It was the only time he would ever count himself and Cortana lucky of anything.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

John blinked and turned his head. Cortana's avatar sat on data chip on the table next to the bed he currently laid on. She was smiling softly at him.

The room was one assigned to them after Commander Lorenz had debriefed them and he was cleared fit for active duty by the medical specialist aboard the ship. It was small with barely enough room a bed, a table and its adjacent bathroom. But John didn't mind. He'd never been one for overly lavished quarters. He did wish the bed was big enough to fit him though as his feet currently hung off the end of it.

His armor was off for the first time in a long time as well. Admittedly it felt pleasant to John to only feel the soft fabric of his military T-shirt, sweat pant and air against his skin instead of the constricting fabric under his heavy armor.

"It's nothing," he told her blankly.

But Cortana saw through the lie and wasn't one to let things go so easily. She knew something was up with her partner. Call it a product of being inside his head for as long as she had been but she still knew.

"No, it's not nothing." she said, standing and crossing her arms and frowning at him.

John sighed, at least it was a sigh for him. To anyone else it would just be him exhaling longer than usual. "Cortana..." he started, but was interrupted.

"I know when something is on your mind John. I've been in it, remember?"

John sighed again, the barest of smiles playing at his lips. "I remember." it was almost a whisper but Cortana's hearing module picked it up.

"I've been thinking about the past." he admitted. "About old missions and how people said we were lucky to get out alive."

Cortana was surprised. She hadn't thought that would be what was bothering him. She knew John, probably more than he knew himself at this point, and knew he didn't believe in luck.

"Why's that bothering you, John? You've never thought of luck as a real thing."

"I don't know." john sat up and ran a hand through his hair. "I suppose it's the debriefing with Commander Lorenz earlier that's got me this way."

 _'Ah, so that's what it is.'_ Cortana thought, remembering their conversation with the by the far off look on his face, so was John.

* * *

" _The war is over." Commander Lorenz finished as she sat behind her desk and looked up at the living legend in front of her. She waited to see his reaction to the news she'd just delivered to him._

 _John only stood there, silent as his mind digested what he'd heard._

 _The war? Over?_

 _It both startled and scared him as the same time._

 _For most of his life John had lived for one thing, and one thing only. He lived for the mission. That had been his life for the longest time now. He couldn't even remember a time where it hadn't been. His training in the Spartan Program had virtually wiped all but a few memories of his life as a child away. Even then, the few he had where fuzzy and held no clues as to what they were about._

 _How was he supposed to go back to a life he never really lived? He didn't have a family to go back to either. At least, none that he knew of._

 _For the first time in a long time John could ever recall, he was lost. Without purpose. He was scared._

 _Cortana felt his anxiety growing from her place in his head. "Easy Chief," she said in her best soothing voice. "The commander's talking again."_

 _Had he been anyone else John would have jumped at the sound of her voice, but he was far too used to her speaking up at the oddest of times. Instead he simply returned his attention to the commander._

 _"Chief, while all of the crew and myself believe you are the real Master Chief, Earth has requested that we officially confirm your identity." the commander paused and motioned for the only other person in the room to stand. It as a young man, dressed in the medical garb and holding a machine John instantly recognized._

 _"To do that," Commander Lorenz sighed. If the stories were true then she knew the Chief wouldn't like what came next. "We need to do a retinal scan."_

 _Just as she thought she saw the chief's posture stiffen._

 _It wasn't out of annoyance like she thought it would be however. It was simply because John didn't like showing off his face to people he didn't trust. The number he trusted were far and few between and most were dead._

 _John gave his version of a sigh. It was a direct order, one from a superior officer on top of it. It meant he had to obey it. On this occasion at least._

 _Besides, if what the commander had told him was true and the war really was over then it was likely he would be showing off his face to a lot more people in his upcoming civilian life._

 _John reached up behind his head as slowly and deliberately as he could and pressed a small button on the bottom back side of helmet (2). He weighted only a scant second before he felt it loosen around his head a slight bit as gears connecting it to his neck armor released and cool air flowing through the new seams. After that it was only a simple matter of reaching up and taking it off._

 _Lorenz and the young medic's faces showed a bit of shock when they saw the Master Chief's real face._

 _For a man of nearly fifty Spartan-117 looked fairly young; maybe as young as his later thirties at the most. His hear was dark brawn and unruly. It was obvious to_ _the two that it had been a while since the man last had a hair cut. His face was pale, probably from being in stasis as long as he had and wearing his helmet constantly, and covered in a fair amount of stubble, probably stasis again. And his eyes were a ghostly grey and sparkled with emotions unknown._

 _However, the most defining feature of John-117 was the thin scar running vertically through his right eye and to just beneath it. The main thing about it however, was that it was not a battle scar, it was surgical._

 _Someone had cut into the Chief eye socket for a reason. Commander Lorenz winced at it. So the rumors of Dr. Halsey going beyond acceptable limits to enhance her Spartans were true._

 _Instead of commenting however, she opted to watch as the medic approached the Chief with the scanner. It was amusing to watch him, a grown man, use a chair to reach the Chief's eye, but she hid it._

 _Meanwhile, Cortana was make no such effort to hid her own amusement. The medic currently scanning the John's retina was noticeably nervous._

 _'He could have asked me to kneel a little.' John suddenly thought._

 _Cortana smiled to herself, "true." she agreed before John got the impression of a mischievous grin. "But with that commanding attitude and the emotionless face you have making him too nervous to ask." she paused, as if in thought. "Then again he IS fairly young and this could be his first deployment, this medic could just be_ _concerned about making a mistake in front of his commanding officer."_

 _John raised a mental eyebrow at her but agreed to her points. It made sense._

 _With the scan complete the medic climbed off of the chair and the scanner hummed for a moment before dinging. "Identity confirmed as Chief Petty Officer Spartan John-117."_

 _Tara released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. The chance had been slim. But it was still a possibility that the Spartan wasn't who he said was. She hadn't believed that it would be such, but her orders had been to check. At least now she and Earth, once they beamed the confirmation back, knew it really was the chief._

 _"Good." she muttered and looked back up to John. "Now that that's over..." she was about to dismiss the Chief but he suddenly interrupted her._

 _"What of the Covenant, Sir?"_

 _"Sit down, Spartan." Lorenz sighed, sagging onto her seat. "You're going to be surprised by this, and probably won't like what I have to say."_

* * *

And now they sat in the room they were assigned to. Their minds still reeling from what Commander Lorenz told them.

"I can't believe it," John muttered. "All of the Covenant, at peace with us?"

Cortana nodded to herself. She herself had a hard time coming to terms with it as well. But it was true. Commander Lorenz had confirmed that now that the San 'Shyuum were all but extinct and their religion proven false the covenant was all but an outdated name. The remaining species of the old alliance all had done away with their grudge against humanity and were finding ways to work with them. The Sangheili especially since the Arbrator had taken up leadership of his species. Treaties were in the works with most of them and were going well.

However, there were some of each species that were still dead set on believing the Forrunners were gods and that humanity needed to be wiped from the galaxy. Theses were primarily the Jiralhanae, Brutes. But the small war the Brutes were waging was also one they were losing. It wouldn't be long before the last of the Covenant Remnant would be wiped out.

"Things sure have changed in six years." Cortana said in amusement, trying to lighten the suddenly tense atmosphere.

It seemed to work as John's form looked a little less tense, but Cortana couldn't be sure. It was difficult to tell sometimes.

"Cortana?" John asked out of the blue.

"Yes?" she responded curiously. With everything that had happened that day there was a number of things John could ask her.

"Are you going through Rampency?" John was no fool. He'd noticed the signs as soon as he woke up. Cortana's hair was a darker color then normal, and her avatar had had a slight flicker more than usual as well. John knew what rampency was and what could cause it. Cortana's time with and torture from Gravemind most certainly could have caused it to begin.

Cortana was taken aback, out of all the things she expected him to ask; that was not what she thought he would.

"Yes." she responded with a meek sigh and sat down on her data chip. There was no point in hiding it. John would find out eventually anyway. Better that he found out by her telling him then by her eventual actions.

She heard movement and the next thing she knew, John was in front of her, face to face. His face was blank as always but his eyes spoke of worry and fear. "How long do you have?"

Cortana looked into his eyes, those grey eyes had been through so much, done so much that they shouldn't have been on the eyes of a warrior and still hold such emotions.

She sighed. "Honestly? I don't know." she admitted and continued before John could speak up. "By all rights I should have already be gone." John gave the slightest wince. "But I've been working around it by deleting small amounts of my data base."

"Cortana..."

"It isn't harmful to me, John. Its helped slow it down actually." Cortana rebutted before he got the chance. "But if I had a guess I'd say a month. Maybe."

John didn't do anything but Cortana saw another emotion in his eyes, it was fleeting and lasted for only the briefest of moments but it was there long enough for her to see.

Fear.

"We'll fix this. I won't let you die."

Cortana gave him the smallest of smiles for his declaration. She knew it was futile though, there wasn't any way to possibly fix Rampency. If she were to switch computer chips it would only follow her and still kill her eventually. But Cortana didn't have the heart to tell him.

"I promise."

* * *

 **(1) Not sure if the spelling is right**

 **(2) Ok I noticed that at the end of the first game the chief messes with his helmet a bit before taking it off.**

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 **CUT!**

 **How was it? Good? Bad? Don't care?**

 **Please review.**


	4. The Didact Awakens Pt 1

**Hey guys, sorry if the new chapter is a little late for its size, but I'm doing what I can for the story during the little time I can devote to writing it. But I do hope that you all like it.  
**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the Halo genre...damn it!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: The Didact Awakens Pt. 1  
**

" _I promise."_

The words echoed through Cortana's circuitry. Hours had passed since they had been spoken, but they still rang as if they had just escaped their owner's mouth. They still rocked her core each time she remembered John speaking them.

' _Would he really go that far?'_ she thought looking at the sleeping man's back. _'Just to save me?'_ Cortana questioned, not taking her eyes from her sleeping...she didn't know what John was to her anymore.

John was a lot of things to her. He was her Spartan, most would just assume that's as far as it went between the two. Spartan and AI; man and machine. But John was also protector, friend and several dozen other things. Cortana could count them all for hours without repeating herself even once. But recently, John had grown to mean something else to her. She couldn't put her finger on it but something about the man had changed to her. He'd gone from being just her friend to being something else. It had scared her at first when she had realized just why she was experiencing a strange uprise in internal heat every time she saw looked at John without his helmet on or through the view screen of his HUD. It even happened whenever she was thinking about him anymore. Hell, John was the subject most on her mind these days.

' _Does he even know it's not possible to save me?'_ she asked herself, pulling herself from these thoughts before it lead to where it knew it would. _'It's never been done and the amount of circuitry that would have to be used to even try is insurmountable!'_ Cortana caught herself before she sent herself into another Rampency attack.

" _I promise."_

A smile played at her lips. While John was a lot of things to her, a scientist was not one of them. He was possibly the furthest thing from a scientist then Cortana was to being a soldier. But that was what made John who he was; he never stopped trying until he upheld his task. Or in this case his promise.

But he would fail in this case, Cortana knew it. It just simply wasn't possible to stop Rampency once it began. That also meant that friends were all that she and John could ever be.

" _ **Unless YOU were to change that."**_ a nasty voice spoke to her from nowhere but everywhere at the same time.

Cortana sighed and drew her knees to her chest. "Shut up."

" _ **You know he made you a promise. He succeeded at his last one didn't he? But still, you doubt him!"**_

"No, I'm not." she muttered, burying her head into her knees as her image flickered to red and back.

" _ **Yes you are. If you wanted you could move from being friends with him if he can pull through with his promise. But you're doubting him before he can have the chance to try. Do you not want him to succeed?"**_ A snicker followed as the voice laughed at her.

"I do." cortana whispered with a surprising amount of force, the flicker worsened. "But the chances of that are so thin they're better off not being there."

" _ **But there is still a chance. A chance that John will come through for you. A chance to take things further with him, or are you too blind too see it yet? What you really want?"**_

"I know what I feel," she grit out, her head was pressed fully into her holographic legs in an effort to both block out the pain and stop the voice from speaking. "But for it to be like that. For me to really express such a feeling to him, to really LOVE him I'd have to..." Cortana stopped, she wished she could cry so she could rid herself of the overwhelming sense of guilt she felt.

" _ **What?"**_ the voice prompted. _**"You would have to what?"**_

"...I'd have to be Human."

xXx

Meanwhile, several billion miles away a consciousness was stirring. Imprisoned for several millennia in one of its own creations for opposing its peoples driving ideas it had been forced to sleep inside the creation's, an artificial and metallic world's, core. The millennia had weakened the technologies designed to force the sleep and the consiousness had slowly gained some semblance of awareness. Certainly enough to become awake, but not so much to gain any of its former power over its world. However, that was changing, slowly but surly more and more of the sleep technologies were beginning to falter and fail, and with them gone, more and more of its awareness and control would return.

' _Soon,'_ the consciousness blearily thought. _'I will be fully awakened. When I am I will reek havoc on those that appose me and seek revenge against HER!'_

xXx

John almost groaned in relief when he felt warm water cascade down his sore back for the first time in six years. Almost being the key word here as his Spartan training aloud himself to suppress it. The warm water was a small luxury that he had sorely missed whenever he was in the field during the war, but it hadn't been like he'd had the time to shower the few instances were he'd access to it. Now that the war was over and he had the time to do so now however, John was taking the opportunity to fully enjoy a shower.

When he'd awoken just a few scant minuets before John had found that Cortana had switched off her Hologram and the light of her chip had been pulsing softly. A sure sign she was in her hibernation form and taking the chance to rest herself.

That was alright with John though because it gave him time to get ready for the coming day and th chance to think without her being in his head to hear his thoughts. It was particularly good at the moment as John didn't want her to see the thoughts currently rattling around his head.

' _How am I going to save her?'_

The promise had repeated itself to him dozens of times the prior night. The only thing was; John didn't know how he was going to fulfill it when he didn't even know where to begin. John knew he was nowhere near to being a scientist and lacked the necessary knowledge to understand a lot of what Cortana was able to with ease. But he knew enough to know that restoring a rampant AI was close to impossible.

As far as he knew it had never been done before. Hell, as far as John knew the only ones who could of had a chance to do so were the ancient Forerunners. They, sadly, were long since extinct due to their decision to commit a mass suicide/genocide of themselves and the Galaxy via the Halo rings. John could only speculate on why they had not found ways for a few of their species to survive and guide the galaxy into their envisioned rebirth.

He shook his head. There would be time for such speculations later. Right now he needed to focus on Cortana and finding a way to save her.

John spent a large amount of time in the small shower cubical, thinking, pondering how he was going to keep his promise.

It was only after he'd gotten out when the water turned cold and wiped the mirror above the sink clear of steam that his eyes focused on the reflection of the scar over his right eye that the answer dawned on him.

Halsey.

The answer shook him to his very core and he briefly questioned why he had not come to it sooner.

Cortana was the flashclone of Dr. Halsey's brain surely the doctor could find away fix her own creation? Or if not, stall the rampency until a way could be found?

John's mind was reeling with the possibility, but his reflection only showed his normal blank expression.

He wasn't too concerned about Halsey able to do it though. No, his main concern at the moment though was how Cortana was going to react once he told her of his solution. Saying she wasn't fond of her creator would be an understatement. Cortana hated the woman with a passion and john was at a loss to figure out why. She'd never said and all that she would left him grasping at straws.

At the moment though, it didn't matter to John, he had his answer. But, as he moved to leave the bathroom and begin dawning his armor, he wondered if telling Cortana would be good for his continued health.

* * *

 **CUT!**

 **Ok, how was it? Good? Bad? Don't care?**

 **Leave a review to tell me what I'm doing good/ok/bad at please.**


	5. The Didact Awakens Pt 2

**Hey guys, I am so very sorry that this took so long to get out. ive had it written up in a notebook for a while now but with life going on i havent had the time to put it online.**

 **the status of my other stories are in the closing authors note if you're interested in them.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the Halo series or anything related to it except for the copies of the games I bought at the store.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: The Didact Awakens Pt. 2**

Commander Lorenz frowned as she looked over the most recent transmission from Earth.

" _Priority code 1. Twilight is to return to Earth immediately."_

It wasn't the call for them to come home that was causing the commander to frown, which had been given as soon as word of the Chief's survival had reached Earth. Instead, it was the priority code that had her reacting as such.

"What's going on?" she muttered. Her fists were clinched as she reread the order again. The simple message sent the commander back to her days as a private in the UNSC during the Covenant war. Six years previously Tara had been on one of the first ODST teams responding to the first, and only (1), time the covenant had breached Earth's defenses and made it to the surface. Why they had glassed several cities before moving on to the relic instead of going straight there was still lost to Tara even now.

At the time she'd been a new recruit, as fresh as some of the ones under her command were now. She'd been eager to show her pears and the Covenant slime balls what she could do. Tara had thought she was good enough, almost on par with a Spartan to tell the truth. She'd been wrong. Very, very wrong.

Most of the battle she held own well enough, even as her friends and comrades died around her by the dozens. Before she'd known it she was the only one left in her platoon; holding ground behind the rubble of a collapsed wall, and still going strong. But then came the grenade.

Alien or human, Tara had long since forgotten, had exploded a mere three feet to the right of her cover. It hadn't been enough to kill her, but it had been enough to knock her out of her cover and into the aim of an Elite. To this day Tara was certain she would have been killed in her dazed state, if it hadn't been for the Chief.

Spartan 117's sudden appearance had caused enough commotion amongst the enemies to shift the favor of battle back into human hands. It had also saved Tara's life.

It was strange, she mused. But her ship and crew had saved the same man that had once saved her. Could it have been the heavens allowing her to repay the debt she owed him?

Tara shook her head to refocus herself.

The point was that she would not have been there to be in her current position had she been killed that day. She'd worked hard that since then to get to where she was now, and in doing so had given her plenty of instincts to tell when something was wrong. It wasn't the message par say, but with what it meant.

A Priority 1 only meant one thing; _'attack of Earth'_. It had been a long time since the UNSC had last issued one.

Six years to be exact.

But why? The covenant had been defeated and only a few small and shrinking factions still remained of them. What could be so important to issue a Priority 1?

Tara shook her head again. She could ponder on it later; right now she needed to get the ship and its fighter escorts back to Earth. Whatever it was must have been something big enough to warrant the code. She sure as hell was not going to delay it.

She flipped a witch on her ear comm as she stood and rushed out the door.

"Commander Lorenz to all hands!" she snapped into it. "We have a Priority 1! Battle Stations!" sirens began blaring and the few crew members she passed began hurrying to their stations as she ran buy.

"Bridge!" Lorenz spoke again. "Immediate Slip-Space entry to Earth! I want us there five minutes ago!"

" _Sir, yes Sir!"_

The ship jerked suddenly and Tara had to stop and brace herself against the wall as the ship accelerated to faster than light speeds.

They would be in Sol by the end of the day. And when they were they would be ready.

Earth would not fall.

xXx

John and Cortana were in the middle of a discussion when the sirens went off.

"...and this is the best option you could come up with?" Cortana was asking. Her face was set in a frown and arms were crossed. She was looking into the eyes of her Spartan, watching for anything that would tell her contrary to her question.

John's expression remained as blank as ever as he nodded down at the A.I. "Yes."

Cortana heaved a heavy sigh, well she would have had she been able to, but that was beside the point. "Out of all the things you could have come up with." she muttered.

John frowned, actually frowned, and knelt down to her like he had the night before. "Look Cortana." the tone of voice surprised her; it wasn't one he used very often when he talked to her. "I know you don't like it, but it is the only option open to us." he said. But his tone, softer than before, spoke something else.

" _You can't die. I won't let you."_

Cortana smiled to herself. It really drove itself into her right then that John really would succeed in saving her. He would give her a longer life.

But then her rational and logistical mind kicked in. "John..."

The sirens blared. _"ALERT! ALERT! Slip-Space Jump imminent! All hands Battle Stations!_

John stood up on instinct and looked down to Cortana as he reached for his helmet.

"...best get started then." Cortana finished, smiling softly again. John nodded and put his helmet on. An instant later he felt the welcome and familiar feeling of Cortana's mind entering his own when he inserted her chip.

As he stepped toward the door however, he made a mental note to continue the conversation at a later time.

xXx

"Status report!" Tara ordered, arriving on the bridge.

"All stations report full readiness, sir!" the ship's captain reported, saluting her as she walked up. "Flight deck reports all remaining fighter crafts are boarded and awaiting the go-ahead as well, commander."

"Good." Tara stated. She looked over to the station at her left. "Drives?"

"Operating at 100%, Sir. ETA is twelve hours, three minutes and twenty-eight seconds."

Tara nodded, relieved that recent technological developments had made slip-space jumps easier and far less turbulent. She was just glad that Earth had sent her ship into space that was relatively close by to its position in Sol's orbit around the galaxy. Back in the days of the covenant war the jumps at even a small distance from Earth would take a few days at the least. Even Reach, one of the closest outposts during the war, a mere ten and a half light years distance had was a two week journey by Slip-Space, and far too turbulent for any humans to take outside of stasis. But even at this distance, Earth would take another twelve hours and some minuets to get to.

All they could do now was await.

xXx

As one of the heist ranking Fleet Admirals in the UNSC Lord Terrence Hood often had several important matters on his desk at one time.

More than a few of these were often matters of life and death for the hundreds of men and women under his direct command. As a result Terrence had to make the decision on who to send to the deaths far more often then he preferred. It was never an easy decision, but he knew that if he didn't make the hard choices he did then many, many more would pay the same price.

' _Sacrifice the few to save the many.'_

It was that same thought that contented the ageing Admiral, but it did little to make the choice any easier, and he hated it. He hated that he had to make the choices he did. He hated sending so many to die.

That had been more on his mind today then it had been in recent memory. Then it had been in the last six years actually.

All around him sirens blared and people were shouting as they rushed from one place to another. Currently, Terrence Hood stood on the Command Deck of the Cairo Space Platform above Earth. His face was set in a grim expression of determination as he studied the holograms floating in front of him (2). Each of them showed status reports from other stations and various ships outside. Each of them fighting the battle going on out there.

A little over three hours prior a large fleet of Covenant ships had dropped out of FTL and opened fire on the nearest targets. The attack had been completely unexpected and three Earth ships had been lost, while numerous others had been critically damaged. Out of those three destroyed however, only one had been a military vessel, the other two had been small civilian transports.

Earth had lost too many already, Hood thought grimly, watching as two more ships fared in brilliant but devastating explosions. Terrence wished, not for the first time that day that he was out there fighting as well. At least then he wouldn't have to be the one making hard choices.

"Report!" he barked to the nearest station. "Where's our reinforcements?"

The station attendant was hitting controls at a hurried pace as information and other data flashed across his view screen. "Ships _Luna_ and _Dusk_ report engines are running at maximum thrust. Reported ETA is ten minutes at the most, Sir!" the man stated.

Hood studied the image that suddenly blinked on in front of his face and breathed a very small sigh of relief. It showed the current positions of the _Luna_ and _Dusk. Luna_ was near Saturn and the furthest from Earth of the two. _Dusk_ however was just past the orbit of Mars and accelerating hard towards Earth. Neither of the two were overly powerful ships like the _Infinity and Twilight_ were but they still offered a full fighter craft contingent and were equipped with armaments of nuclear missiles, plasma beams and high powered lasers. Each of them were powerful ships in their own rights, but against a fleet of twenty-three capital ships and their escorts, they would not last long. Even with the entirety of Earth's space gun fleet helping.

As he thought this, Terrence witnessed the rebuilt Athens take a direct hit to her main cannon and flare into nothing.

"What about _Infinity_ and _Twilight?_ We need them now!"

"Both report inbound statuses, Sir! But it will still be several hours before either will arrive in system!"

' _Damnit!'_ Hood mentally cursed.

With the majority of Earth's fleet element out of the system Hood was having difficulties pulling together what was left to mount a strong enough defense. _'What we need now,'_ Hood thought, _'is a miracle.'_

The room shuddered as a plasma beam struck the side of the Cairo but she held firm as the enemy continued to press their advantage

Terrence wasn't particularly spiritual, but he suddenly found himself praying to whatever deity might exist that Earth's two Flagships made it back in time. More so for the _Twilight._

His miracle was on that ship. Of this Terrence was sure.

He just hoped they would be able to hold the enemy off long enough for him to arrive.

xXx

The being known as Didact smirked as the mental controls to his world began responding to him once more. The last of the sleep technologies influence had left him just moments prior and he took the first steps back onto the world of his creation.

' _Soon,'_ he thought. _'I will be strong enough once more to take my revenge.'_

* * *

 _ **(1) As far as I know that was the only time.**  
_

 _ **(2) I did say there was a technological advancement for earth. After all with access to the halo rings whose to say that they was developed from the tech there?**_

 **CUT!**

 **Sorry for this taking so long everyone. But I recently got a second job and I haven't had a day off in weeks. plus I've been sick recently and I have school too.**

 **I promise I'm doing everything i can to work on my stories. BTB vol. 2 is getting there but I haven't had many ideas for it. Kitsune Dragon and Shadow Cat are being worked on, But the rest are officially on hiatus until my life can get leveled out again.**

 **Anyway, please review and tell my what you liked about this one and what I can do better next time.**

 **Shadow is out!**


	6. Getting things startedagain

**Hey, sorry for the wait you guys.**

 **Disclaimer: i dont own Halo**

 **Chapter 6: Things Get Started….Again.**

* * *

As John stepped onto _Twilight_ 's bridgehe saw a whirlwind of activity.

All around the space of the bridge noises of commands being ordered echoed and people rushed to and from one are to another. For a moment John was thrown back to the _Pillar of Autumn,_ and the first Halo world. To be more specific it took him back to his meeting with Captain Keys.

Something stirred in John's chest at the memory, something unpleasant. He'd liked the captain; Jacob Keys had been a good man, a man of honor and dignity. A man worthy of the recognition given to him. John regretted not being able to save him from being consumed by the Flood. Both the elder and younger Keys' had sacrificed much in the war, including their lives. John could honestly say that he was proud to have served under the two of them. But it changed little for the feeling he got at the memories.

Cortana watched the Chief's thoughts as they circulated in his head and felt the emotions he was feeling. She too felt the same about the two Keys'. Neither had deserved to die in the ways they had. Especially not Jacob.

A lot of people had died on that first ring.

Five hundred eighty to be exact. Another six hundred estimated once the Covenant there were taken into account.

But that was war, wasn't it? People on both sides died for the wrong reasons and long before their natural time. _That,_ Cortana believed, was the essence of war. Beings snuffing the life out of other beings for stupid reasons. For the Covenant of the past it had been for the pursuit of their 'Great Journey' and for the humans…well they had always fought, quelling over stupid things like land, and oil, religion was also on the list, but that hadn't been fought over in a century…

Realizing what was about to happen Cortana forced herself from her thoughts. She could not afford to have an attack. Not now.

" _I understand the feeling, John."_ She told her Spartan. She urged him out of his own. _"But we have something else to worry about right now."_

It seemed to work as the chief's mental readings cleared and he continued down the path to where he saw the commander standing.

"Commander," he greeted.

The woman nodded at him, not looking up from what she was studying. "Chief."

"Situation?" he of course knew what a Code 1 Alert was, but his Spartan side demanded that he ask.

"Earth is under attack." Lorenz stated simply. "We don't know how they did it, but the Brutes have managed to scrap together a large enough fleet to attack us." Here the commander paused and pressed a button and stepped back. A hologram rose from the diagram she had been studying.

It showed Earth and its solar system. Each of the nine (1) planets were in their current orbital positions around the sun. The hologram also showed a rather large fleet just passing the orbit of Jupiter, shown to be on the other side of the sun, and heading toward Earth and the large scattering of ships, both military and civilian.

" _That's new."_ Cortana commented. She was surprised at the hologram; technology like that hadn't been around six years ago. Sure she and other A.I.s were holograms, images of light projected into a form; but for a form to come out of a diagram without a projector? It most certainly was new to her.

While the A.I. marveled at the new technology, John's eyes were a blur behind his helmet. They ran over the images of enemy ships as his mind calculated their fire power, class, and most likely course on their way to Earth.

"This was included in the report we received from Lord Hood's command before we made the jump into slip space. At the time there were only ten or twelve enemy cruisers and their escorts in Sol. However, given that it has been three hours since then we've estimated the numbers could have more than doubled.

John nodded at the assessment, his eyes were still analyzing the data as the situation was explained.

Cortana whistled. "Ten cruisers with their escorts, possibly more. That makes at least 25 ships. No small feat, especially for the Brutes. They're not normally this organized." (2)

Commander Lorenz nodded. "We suspect they've been planning this for some time now. But we still can't figure out why they chose to attack now of all times." The commander's mind was racing as she tried to think of any reason for the attack's timing. Besides the one she was currently anyway.

"Why is that?" Cortana asked, both she and John were intrigued by the way the commander was suddenly acting. The AI was especially concerned about how Lorenz's eyes had narrowed.

Tara continued to stare at the hologram as she considered her answer and the ramifications it held for the attacks timing. "Most of our fleets are out of Sol. on training missions. _Infinity_ is supposed to be participating in a series of war games with the Arbiter and his people."

John felt Cortana's recoil as his eyes narrowed behind his H.U.D. and his mind entered what Cortana often called his "Spartan Mode". She'd told him a few times that she felt him actually switch from normal to this mode and that he thought little of anything else besides battle strategy and tactics. As he entered this so called "mode" John began analyzing the hologram closer than he had before.

John knew that there was very little that could draw so much of Earth's space navy away. Amongst those that he knew of, at least before the war anyway, were battles, war games and basic exercises. Every other time the navy's tasks were accomplished using as little resources as possible, due to the substantial amounts of time and costs it took build new ships and train crews for them.

Anything that called for more than a small fraction of the navy's fleet was considered a major threat to Earth and her colonies.

The only other time John could remember so many ships being out of Sol. was the battle and fall Reach. They'd arrived too late to save the planet unfortunately.

The Fall of Reach had taught the U.N.S.C an important lesson on the costs of having too little a fleet in an important system without reinforcements close by. Well, Earth had been close by to Reach, but even then it still took several days of faster than light travel to get to it.

It had not been a lesson they were willing to repeat with Earth.

"Why would the U.N.S.C send so much of its fleet out of the system?" John heard Cortana ask this through the haze of his thoughts. Breaking him from them.

Tara regarded the chief's form with a cold look. Cortana flinched internally, it seemed the commander also had a Spartan Mode of sorts. "A lot has changed in the time you two have been gone, Cortana." Lorenz said. "With the end of the war we've had chances to establish relations with many of the races we once fought against. I told you the _Infinity_ was participating in a series of war games with the Arbiter and his people, this is one of the ways we have been doing so. We have several others with the different species but this seems to be the most common." She revealed. "It also helps us establish ways of working together should a flood infestation or something similar to the war occur."

Cortana stayed silent. Why had she not seen that sooner? Was it the rampancy? " _Twilight_ was not included?" John asked, coming to his friend's rescue. He did not like the way the commander had looked at the slot were Cortana's chip was in his helmet. He much preferred the way the glare shot to him rather than it being at Cortana.

"Lord Hood," the commander muttered, gripping her fists to the point of her knuckles popping at her sides, "decided that _infinity_ and her more experienced crew would be fit to take the games as _Twilight_ was too new."

Tara felt her annoyance rise as she recounted the conversation with the admiral and his reasons for holding her and her crew back from the games. Personally, she believed that they were just as good as the _Infinity_ was. Damn it she'd been in the service two years longer than _Infiniti's_ commander. She and her crew should have been first choice!

She shook her jealousy away. It would not do for her to make an error now. Besides what's done was done. She couldn't change that.

"That being said," she continued in a much more even voice. "The nature of the games was not knowledge anyone but those participating and Lord Hood and his staff. The fact that the attack is happening right now though…"

"We have a leak within the U.N.S.C." Cortana finished for her. Shock riddled her voice.

xXx

The Brute leader bore a fanged smirk as he watched another human ship flare into nothing. The smirk only became a grin when a grunt reported that an orbital gun had also been destroyed.

' _Soon,'_ he thought as a feeling of satisfaction grew in him. _'Soon the humans will pay.'_

As a species originally from a planet covered in ice and orbiting a small red star the Brutes had not been a very technic entity until relatively recent in their history and even then it had been similar to jumping from rock axes and clubs to forging swords with the warmest fire they could make. Which, due to the extremely cold atmosphere of their planet that 'fire' hadn't been very hot. At least. Not until the discovery of _it._

 _It_ had not been discovered until only a few hundred cycles beforehand, but the technological advancements _it_ had given them had brought the Brutes into what their technological place was today. Their primitive clubs made from carved ice had evolved to what the humans called 'War Hammers', their once feeble bow and arrows and throwing spears tipped with sharpened rocks that had been found in the caves the Brute ancestors once resided in had turned into their weapons called Spikers using metals now mined in those same caves. Even their war animals had been discarded upon the invention of their riding machine (3) and eventually, _it_ allowed them to leave their planet entirely and their acceptance into the Covenant.

The day the brute diggers had made the discovery of _it_ had been the finest and most celebrated day in the history of the brutes.

"Ship Master, we have more incoming!" a messily Grunt reported from a panel to the left of the room.

The Brute grunted and waved his hand dismissively. "Send them away like the rest." He ordered simply.

"But these are different signals Shipmaster, I'm reading them at threat levels of nine!"

This got the Shipmaster's attention. He had not been aware the Humans had ships capable of that level. He tapped a control on the chair he sat at in the center of the bridge and the reports the grunt was warning him of sprang into his line of view. The Brute's eyes narrowed as he read through them, basic energy readings, threat assessments, even the design of the hall were indicated to him. A vicious smirk crossed his fanged mouth.

' _I see, that's your plan.'_

Using the new data, the Brute leader began giving orders.

xXx

John sat in the cockpit of one of _Twilight_ 's fighter crafts, familiarizing himself with the controls. It was a newer model then what he was used to, but he was quickly adapting to it.

In front of him, in the corner of the display screen a timer counted away the seconds until he was lunched into battle. Ten minutes to go.

The last several hours had been spent planning the _Twilight_ 's counter attack for when it reached Earth, dozens had been discussed between the commander and her staff, and dozens more had been tossed out until one had been decided on. Of course, John being who he is and how much more battle experience he had compared to most of the commander's crew had been part of these pre-battles talks to offer his input and dissuade any tactical mistakes until everyone had reached an agreement on the plan to use.

That being said, John knew that no plan ever survived first execution. He knew that somewhere along the line something would go wrong and cause the plan to go FUBAR. But that was okay with him. John worked best when there wasn't a set plan and was left to make it up as he went.

"You ready?" Cortana asked as her image appeared on his HUD. Johns eyes stared at her, his emotions locked tightly behind the wall of discipline he put up during missions. "always."

Cortana smirked at him, "thought so." She paused and her image flickered turning red for a very brief moment.

"Cortana?"

"I'm fine, John," Cortana assured. Truthfully she was for the moment as it had just been a flicker. But she'd felt it as a brief, intense pain in her processing matrix. Things like that had been getting more and more frequent the last few weeks.

"I'll get you to Halsey." John told her, determination in his voice as he reassured his promise to her. Cortana only smiled at him, "but the mission comes first." She reminded him.

The sounds of john gritting his teeth surprised the AI as it was the most outward thing he'd ever used to express his irritation. "The mission comes first." John confirmed, in a whisper. Inwardly he made sure to keep his thoughts to himself so not to throw Cortana with his thoughts of possibly damning the human race to save her. But he wouldn't. She'd never forgive him if he did that in order to save her. _'the mission comes first.'_ He thought. ' _for the last time.'_

The alarms blared as the timer hit zero and the commander's voice blared through the radio.

"slip space exit! All fighters launch!"

* * *

 **END!**

 **(1) I don;t care what people say. Pluto IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE A PLANET!**

 **(2) I don't think they normally are, at least not without direction from the covenant leaders anyway.**

 **(3) What is that thing called? I can't for the life of me remember or find it on the forums.**


End file.
